Pay Attention to What’s Important

A Welcome Message from the Conference Chair, Ralph Montague.

At a practical level, what could be more important to humanity than the built environment? Buildings and infrastructure are involved in almost every aspect of life, delivering almost everything we need as human beings, from clean drinking water, food, clothing, goods, energy, transport, communications, and shelter. Places and spaces to live, love, laugh, cry, eat, sleep, learn, trade, play and pray. What we do, is important. How we do it, is also important.

Throughout history, the ‘heroes’ of Architecture, Engineering and Construction, have provided the buildings and infrastructure that supports almost everything that we do as a society. And we have achieved this because of our ability to communicate, collaborate, and share information. The knowledge we share, through communities and events like this, and our ability to create together, connects past, present and future. It has fuelled human progress. Since the beginning of time those who produce, manage and exchange information, have literally helped shape the environment for humankind to flourish.

The Importance of the Individual

Everyone participating in this community, and attending this event, wants to know, deep down in their ‘psyche’, that they are doing something important. That they are contributing to making the world a better place, for themselves, their families, their friends, and their communities. That they are forming good relationships with like-minded people, who share these common values, and who collectively can make a significant difference or impact. That their life, and the time and effort they are investing, is accomplishing something worthwhile. And that they are being recognised, appreciated, and valued. What could be more important to humanity than contributing to the built environment? And even if you think your contribution only plays a small part in a bigger picture, it is still a vital and necessary part, and if you didn’t play your part, or make your contribution, the world would be worse off or poorer for it. This is a community that recognises, appreciates, and celebrates the ‘sovereign individual’, and their valued contribution to the whole.

The Importance of Making things Better

‘Why’ we do, what we do, is important. But ‘how’ we do it, is also important. Constructing and operating the physical world, uses scarce resources of time, money, lives, energy, and materials. Our industry is struggling to deliver and meet the needs of our communities and societies around the world. Many still live without the basic necessities that others have come to enjoy. Building is slow, expensive, dangerous, wasteful, and environmentally impactful. Quality is often poor and compromised. Corruption is rife. We need to do ‘better’. We can do ‘better’.

We all know we can. We could make endless excuses, or blame others, as to why we aren’t doing better, but we all know, deep down, even at a personal level, that making excuses or blaming others doesn’t help, and that we could do ‘better’. We need to stop being victims, or villains, perpetuating poor practice or contributing to the problems our industry faces, and take up the challenge to act as ‘heroes’ –those who bring solutions to the problems the world faces.

The Importance of Truthful Communication

Since ‘communication’, or the transfer of information or knowledge, and collaboration, is what ultimately brings physical reality into being, we can start by improving our communications, and the information we produce and exchange. ‘Truthful’ information, that is correct, accurate, resolved, on-time and accessible, is what brings positive change. Information Communication Technology (ICT) is here to help us. The ‘digital transition’ of the AEC sector, is improving the way we deliver and operate buildings and infrastructure, and is not just a ‘nice’ thing to do – it is one of the most important things any of us can be involved in. We have an ethical obligation to act in a way that brings about better outcomes for ourselves, and for others. Better information supports better performance, productivity, safety and sustainability. It is what our world needs. We are the present-day ‘BIM Heroes’ tasked with making this happen. We have learned from the past, and we are shaping the future. This is Our Time!

The Importance of Community

‘Community’ is a group of people who share ‘common’ interests and values (the things we see as important). Our aspiration for this community, is that it will continue to grow, and share it’s knowledge and influence all around the world, to encourage others to act as ‘heroes’, to transform the built environment, and the world we live in, by delivering better information. We are excited to announce that we will structure this community in such a way, that gives each individual a say in what the community does, or how the community is governed, and which will reward and recognise the contributions and participation of its members. The BIM Coordinators Community will be a ‘Decentralized Autonomous Organization’

(DAO), or smart contract governed in an open and transparent way on the ‘blockchain’ (an undisputable digital record), where the community members will have the ability to engage in open discussion, make proposals, and vote on those proposals, to self-determine the direction we take. Those who participate and contribute more to the community, will be rewarded with higher levels of recognition and reputation, and also the ability to have more votes. In this way, we continue to recognise, appreciate, and celebrate the ‘sovereign individuals’, and their valued contribution to the whole community.

The Importance of Summit

A ‘summit’ is not just an event. It is ‘... the highest point or peak …’ - a meeting or coming together of leaders in a domain of expertise for the purpose of sharing information, developing expertise, understanding and wisdom, to advance the objectives of the community. It brings together ongoing activities that occur during the year. It is a time to reflect on, recognize, appreciate and celebrate those activities - both the ‘wins’, and the ‘challenges’. It is a time to take stock, and recalibrate. It is a time to also look ahead, and plan going forward, to determine what activities should occur in the next year. It is also a time to share knowledge and lessons learned with others, across the broader community, who may not have been intimately involved in those specific activities, and the opportunity to foster relationships and cross-pollination of ideas/knowledge. It is also a time to meet new people, make new friends, or revive and develop previous acquaintances. To grow your network. We believe everyone should leave each ‘summit’ richer and more informed, than when they arrived.

Today we recognise, appreciate, and celebrate all those who have made significant contributions to make this day possible, from those attending, to those willing to share their knowledge and expertise, to those supporting, sponsoring, or exhibiting, and of course those working tirelessly in the background to make this all happen. It is a great pleasure to be associated with each one of you. You are all ‘BIM Heroes’, and I thank you, on behalf of this community, for what you do.

Ralph Montague is an architect and director at ArcDox BIM Consultants, member of the National BIM Council of Ireland, board member of CITA (Construction IT Alliance), and current chair of the National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI) Technical Mirror Committee for BIM Standards. He is also the past chair of the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland (RIAI) BIM Committee, and RIAI representative to the Architects Council of Europe (ACE) BIM Working Group. He is co-founder of the aecHive ‘Community of Innovators’ platform, coordinator of the Revit and Dynamo Users of Ireland Groups, and co-founder of the recently established BIM Coordinators Summit community.

Where Minds Meet Information Matters &

Agenda

A detailed schedule of all the Topics and Speakers is provided on the Conference App

Wednesday 7th September 2022

Venue: 1WML “Town Hall”, Windmill Lane, Dublin, D02 F206, Ireland

6pm-9pm Welcome Party (for Speakers and Sponsor only)

Thursday 8th September 2022

Venue: THE RDS (Industries Hall 4), Anglesea Rd, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, D04 AK83, Ireland

8am-9am Registrations & Networking

Note: this is limited to those who have purchased a separate dinner ticket. Get the Conference App

Bim Coordinators Summit 2022

Celebrating the Heroes of AEC Architecture | Engineering | Construction 8th September | Live in Dublin + Virtual

Where Minds Meet Information Matters &